Multiple fire risers and multiple FDC's
We recently installed two separate risers covering several different
areas of the building. Each is covered by its own FDC located on the
same side of the building.
The fire marshal recently commented
that the two fire systems have to be connected together, With one FDC.
Is this an NFPA code requirement or other national code requirement?
The last civil design we did the fire marshal made us use only one FDC. I don't believe this was a code requirement, just the personal preference of the fire marshal. Their rationale was that they didn't want the firefighters looking around for different FDC's or worrying about whether they were hooked up to the right FDC. This was for a 100,000 square foot one story building.
I have done something similar on many large warehouse projects. There
is a supply from the city main to the pump room. From there, we exit
the pump and install the underground fire loop around the
building. This puts all of the hydrants on the loop at pump
pressure. We then installed 2-way hydrants, instead of the 3-way with
pumper connections. The AHJ ws just concerned that some one would try
to connect from the pumper outlet on the hydrant to the pump on the
truck. Since the hydrants only had 2.5" outlets, that was not a
problem.
The only thing that would caution me in your scenario
is if the hydrants are not on a dedicated fire line. You don't want to
charge the water loop if there are domestic devices coming off of
it. In the situation I described above, we always had a dedicated fire
loop around the building.
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